STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The white van carrying legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno inched closer to his ranch-style house last night before coming to a stop in front of hundreds of passionate fans who, over and over, chanted the name of the man who has long been the face of their school.

“Joe Pa-ter-no! … Joe Pa-ter-no! … Joe Pa-ter-no!”

The crowd surrounded the van and the 84-year-old Paterno struggled to get out. Once he did, the crowd erupted in cheers, shook handmade signs, pushed close to the coach and followed him to his garage. Then they trampled through the front yard and rushed to a window in front of the house where Paterno appeared.

“I’ve lived for this place. I’ve lived for people like you guys and girls,” Paterno said. “It’s hard for me to say how much this means.”

He also admitted to almost being moved to tears.

“My parents need to know that people still love them,” said one of Paterno’s sons, Scott, who was at the house.

The scene represented one extreme of the tension coursing through the Penn State community. And it stood in stark contrast to indications support for Paterno has waned significantly since former longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was charged Saturday with molesting at least eight young boys between 1994 and 2009, and it was alleged others in the Penn State community, including Paterno, did not do enough to notify authorities of a 2002 incident reported by a purported eyewitness.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported today that the university’s board of trustees is moving toward removing Paterno — whose 409 victories are the most in Division 1 history — “within days or weeks,” and the Harrisburg Patriot-News reported support for Paterno and university President Graham Spanier is “eroding.”

The trustees have a scheduled meeting here Friday, which Gov. Tim Corbett has said he will attend; the Patriot-News reported last night the trustees planned to meet today. A person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the schedule was not made public said the trustees were having a teleconference last night.

“Up to this point, someone would have taken a bullet for Joe Paterno,” Penn State sophomore Evan Ponter said. “We really hold allegiance to him. To see this happening, a lot of people are starting to question it. It’s one of those moments almost where you find out Santa Claus isn’t real.

“I’m not even a big sports fan, but I revere him for having such awesome standards, for making his football players actually hold up his morals,” Ponter said. “And then for himself to not hold it up, it’s very sad.”

Earlier in the day, Paterno’s weekly news conference — which had drawn more than 150 media members, roughly seven times the normal gathering — was abruptly canceled by the school, preventing the coach from answering to a group of critics that’s only growing.

Scott Paterno said his father was disappointed over the decision by Spanier to cancel the news conference. He said his father was prepared to answer questions about Sandusky.

Two university officials already have stepped down; athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz were charged with perjury and failure to report the incident to authorities. Paterno, who was not charged by the grand jury, and Spanier, who Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly didn’t rule out Monday as a potential target of the ongoing investigation, may be next.

Defiantly, Scott Paterno said his father plans to coach not only in Saturday’s home game against Nebraska, but for the long haul.

Much of the criticism aimed at Paterno involves his apparent failure to follow up on a report by a purported eyewitness of a 2002 incident in which Sandusky allegedly sodomized a 10-year-old boy in the showers at the team’s football complex. The eyewitness, Mike McQueary, is the team’s receivers coach but was a graduate assistant at the time.

The next day, McQueary told Paterno what he saw the next day, and the coach notified Curley and Schultz, who in turn notified Spanier.

Both men, as well as Paterno, testified that they were told Sandusky behaved inappropriately in that 2002 incident, but not to the extent of McQueary’s graphic account to a state grand jury.

But as the uncertainty about what might happen next swirls around Penn State’s idyllic campus, support for Paterno in and around the school appears to be declining, if not divided.

“Everyone kind of loved him,” Ponter said. “Everyone just loves seeing him. It was awesome. And now I just feel like if people saw him it would be a different story. Everyone would be running up with questions because that’s what we have right now: questions.”

Paterno — with his scrunched face, thick glasses and nasally voice — has long been Penn State’s singular iconic figure. His name is on the campus library and a statue of his likeness is erected outside Beaver Stadium. An ice cream flavor at a shop in town is named after him and his image is plastered on a sandwich shop in the student center.

On the field, he’s won two national championships and compiled a 409-136-3 record in 46 seasons at Penn State.

The goodwill Paterno built is not lost on many in the Penn State community.

Outside Beaver Stadium yesterday, dozens of students camped out behind Gate A in “Paternoville,” where they waited to get premium tickets for Saturday’s game. In the past, Paterno has been known to stop by and deliver pizzas.

State College was deluged with scores of media from all over the country. Members of the media began lining up two hours before Paterno’s press conference was scheduled to begin.

Football sports information director Jeff Nelson emerged about an hour before the press conference and read and distributed a brief statement announcing it had been canceled due to the “on-going leagl circumstances.” As Nelson rushed away, dozens of reporters and camera crews chased after him.

All over campus television cameras were set up as reporters trolled the campus.

“Even walking by them before it was almost like there was a little bit of shame there,” Mehalshick said. “We know they’re not here for a big win. It’s a negative. Just being on campus during the day and seeing all the media people, it’s almost like a very negative and somber kind of feeling.”